New Disneyland Night-time Parade

There have been many rumors about a new night-time parade for Disneyland ever since "Light Magic" went the way of the dodo, but the persistent one that keeps popping up is the redo of the classic MSEP. I was thinking about this today and had a few ideas.

I know that Tokyo Disneyland's "Dreamlights" floats would be too big for Disneyland's Main Street, but why couldn't DL create the "Dreamlights" floats on a smaller scale? They could even use the existing MSEP floats and add thousands more lights and some fiber-optics and other neat effects. That way the floats would still fit down Main Street and Disneyland wouldn't have to spend the $$$ for all-new floats.

Disneyland could even use the "Dreamlights" soundtrack if they wanted, or at least parts of it, like the "baroque Hoedown" underliner. If they reused the old floats they could keep the "To Honor America" float instead of TDL's "Small World Finale", but they could really make the old float sparkle!

And since the name "Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade - Dreamlights" doesn't make complete sense to an English speaking audience, they could come up with a different name. I came up with one myself. "Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade - Sparkling Edition" OK, maybe it's a little goofy sounding, but not any more goofy than "Dreamlights".

I can see the ad campaign now...

"Coming in Summer 2005...Come see an old friend in a new light... The Disneyland Resort proudly presents 'Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade - Sparkling Edition'! Now more dazzling than ever, with MILLIONS of twinkling lights, and BRILLIANT musical sound! All of your favorite characters are here looking better, and brighter than ever before. State-the-art lighting and special effects plus a newly-recorded digital soundtrack update the classic 'Main Street Electrical Parade' for a new generation to enjoy. So be sure to mark your calendars for the debut of 'Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade - Sparkling Edition' coming in summer 2005. It will be the best version yet!"

I think that this is totally possible, but it's up to Disney to make it happen...

We can only hope that someone reads this and claims the idea for their own; would love to see it happen. Before the Electrical Parade's return @ DCA, wouldn't have minded a similar approach to SpectroMagic, since I love that score as well.

Teh new MSEP sound great Bill. However, I am not expecting until the 50th as well. Right now they are trying to sell DCA, and a new nighttime parade at DL will distract from that. Even the new Pooh ride is rumored to be DL's first silent ride opening. We'll see though.

Disneyland has one huge problem with their parades: the parade route. The streets are so narrow that they can't use the floats from other Disney parks and also can't accomodate most of the floats from other parks. As example Disneyland Paris wanted to sell some of their floats / parades to Disneyland in an exchange for one of their parades or to finance a new parade, but it turned out that the parade route is so much wider in Disneyland Paris that the floats wouldn't fit into Anaheim and the floats from Anaheim would be looking kind of lost on the wide streets in Paris. Therefor this parade exchange system was never realized. Unfortunately as it would given us more frequently at least different parades and would have let the parks share costs for new parades - something I would have never voted for in the past (hey, I want new parades in all the parks!) but which seems a kind of last solution under the current management ... ahh ... I meant ... management. But for the future there might be at least the possibility to set up such a parade exchange program with the Walt Disney Studios in Paris as their floats have to fit through ridiculuous narrow gates and therefor should be fitting onto the parade route of Disneyland Anaheim too. The only problem: while the new parade in the WDS in Paris looks great (take a look at: http://www.dlp.info/ShowsAndParades/WDS/Pa...inemaParade.htm) it is very much centered around a movie making theme and a more general Disney character parade which could go to the WDS in return in an exchange wouldn't really fit (and would cry for comparison to the same kind of parade at Disneyland next door).

But besides this exchange concept that was canceled in the past (and which also prevented Fantillusion from going to Disneyland Anaheim) there is another question coming up: did anybody hear read the latest update of Al Lutz on Mouseplanet (I know, I know, ...)? In that he mentions that Disney's Eureka Parade at DCA is ment to go away for good after Labour Day. Hmmm .... that leaves DCA without a parade besides Disney's Electrical Parade - has there been any word of a new parade for DCA maybe even with a great new soundtrack (hey, I never loose hope!)??